Amid a rocky start to the season, some major changes are coming for the Raiders.
Las Vegas has fired coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, the team announced in a statement early Wednesday morning.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Raiders owner Mark Davis informed members of the organization on Tuesday that the team would be parting ways with both Ziegler and McDaniels.
“After much thought about what the raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave. I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best,” Davis said in the statement.
Schefter reports that the team intends to name linebackers coach Antonio Pierce as their interim head coach following the departure of McDaniels. However, the team is still expected to be on the hook for the remaining four years on the six-year deal that McDaniels signed to join the team in Jan. 2022.
Las Vegas is off to a 3–5 start to the season and is coming off a loss to the Lions in Week 8. The offense has struggled this season, averaging just 15.8 points per game, the third-lowest mark in the NFL.
McDaniels was in his second season as the Raiders’ coach and had registered a 9–16 record across 25 games at the helm before Davis opted to pull the plug on Tuesday.
McDaniels was the first NFL coach to be fired in the 2023 season.